Prior to the 2018 season, Yankee fans had a lot to look forward to and one of them was the arrival of Gleyber Torres. The Yankees acquired Torres from the Cubs in the 2016 Aroldis Chapman trade along with Billy McKinney, Rashad Crawford and Adam Warren. Torres, who had been touted as a top talent since being in the IFA pool as a teenager, was the obvious crown jewel of the return. He was regarded as a top 50-ish prospect in all of baseball at the time, but the stock skyrocketed during the 2016 Arizona Fall League when he was named the league MVP after hitting .403 as a 19-year old (also happened to be the youngest of the bunch, which is cool).

Torres entered the 2017 season as the easy consensus number one prospect in the system. He started the year in Double-A and earned a call-up to Triple-A mid-season. People speculated that he could make the majors by the end of the season. Unfortunately, his year was cut short when he injured the non-throwing elbow on a slide home. The Yankees and the fans had to wait through another winter to see Torres in the majors.

All in all, after a slightly delayed start, Torres had a fine debut season, hitting .271/.340/.480 with 24 home runs in 484 PA’s, good for a 120 wRC+ and a 1.9 fWAR. A 21-year old 2nd baseman hitting 20% better than the league average in his first ML season? I’ll take it. His performance earned him a third place in the AL Rookie of the Year voting as well.

A Torrid Start

Many hoped that Torres would make the roster right out of camp. However, two things got in the way. First off, he did not do well in ST. In 13 Grapefruit League games, Torres hit .219 with ten strikeouts. He hadn’t hit live pitching since last June so some rust was expected, and the Yankees probably wanted him to get some reps in Triple-A before making the majors.

Another reason – probably a bigger one – was service time. A short stint in the beginning of the year meant that the Yankees would control him until 2024. Teams manipulate service time all the time – the Cubs with Kris Bryant, the Blue Jays with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., so on. Anyways, the hope for the Yankees was that Torres would shake off the rust and play well enough in April to justify a call-up (*cough* right as the cutoff date for service time extends *cough).

And it happened just like that. Torres hit .347/.393/.510 in 14 games in Triple-A. The Yankees called him up on April 21 and Torres made the ML debut the next day vs. Toronto. He went 0-for-4 with a strikeout and a GIDP. What took place for the next 33 games, however, was quite magical. From April 23 to June 1, Torres was one of the best players in the majors, hitting .342/.397/.623 with 9 home runs in 33 games. The absolute highlight of his young career came vs. the Indians on May 6:

From June to July, Torres cooled off a bit, but his numbers were still pretty great at the All Star Break: .294/.350/.555 with 15 home runs, which is good for a 143 wRC+. His overall first half performance was good enough to get an All-Star nod. However, because he was in the disabled list at the time (hip injury), Torres was not eligible to play in the Midsummer Classic.

A Disappointing Second Half

There comes a time in most young ML players’ careers where they struggle. That is to be expected, especially in the case of a 21-year old infielder playing in a different position than what he’s used to.

From August 1 to the end of the regular season, Torres hit .254/.335/.420 with 9 HRs in 54 games. That includes a brutal 22-game stretch in August where he only hit .205 with 3 extra base hits in 95 PAs. What happened? As far as we know, it was just a plain slump, which may be the easiest explanation. All players go through it. As for a young guy like Torres, who breezed through the minors, one can press himself too much in the majors and get into a mental funk.

Another theory is that his hip problem bothered him throughout the second half. I don’t know (yet) if there’s any quote from Torres himself that denies the notion of being affected by injuries, but if there is, I would take it with a grain of salt. A baseball season is a pretty long one. One can get a banged up from playing a single game. Over time, players develop bruises, sore spots, nagging pains, etc. they just don’t talk about it. it’s possible that the pain affected his play, but not big enough to stop him from the action.

Besides, the Yankees had some key injuries during his slump (most notably Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius), which emphasized the importance of Torres’s role in the team. There *was* a game late in the season where he was scratched from the lineup for “hip tightness.” Totally just speculating here but I wouldn’t be surprised if hip problem was a factor in his second-half slump.

Ironing Out Some Issues

As it is for most young players, Torres is far from being a complete player. Dude has a lot of tools and he forecasts to be a pretty good ML player long-term. However, at this moment, he does have a few things to work on. First off, he has made some careless errors. Scouts have praised Torres’s fielding tools for awhile and he’s flashed it in the bigs. However, he’s shown dumb errors like this:

It is as routine as it gets, but Torres missed it on a simple glove-t0-hand transfer. Because it is so routine, Torres didn’t bother paying attention to the slight details, which cost the Yankees an out or two here. The good news is that stuff like this is fixable. Unlike Miguel Andujar, whose defensive downfall is from his lack of range, the fix on Torres is mental. The time and potential is on his side.

While fielding percentage doesn’t hold much weight anymore, it tells a little bit of story. Torres had a .970 fielding percentage with 17 errors total. That ranks 18th out of 19 second basemen with qualifying amount of playing time. Fangraphs has his defense metrics at -7.9, which is still not great.

There’s another weakness to his game. Few weeks ago, Mike looked at Torres’s baserunning. The gist is that Torres has been way shy in trying for third base when advancing from first on a single. That’s another correctable thing that could improve with time. One last thing I’ve noticed is his plate discipline. Take a look at his numbers (top) compared to the league average (bottom):

As you can see, Torres swings at more pitches outside of the zone (while making less contact of them than league average) and makes much less contact in general than league average. His walk numbers also dropped a bit as he came to the majors. Plate discipline was not really something that’s been deemed as his weakness in his scouting reports and this is probably from facing Major League pitchers rather than minor league ones. I won’t panic over a 21-year old guy not picking up ML pitches well. It is something I would monitor though, just to see how he progresses.

What’s Next?

(Joseph Garnett Jr./Getty Images)

At this very moment, the Yankee infield is in a bit of a funky position. Gregorius is going to miss a chunk of the season thanks to Tommy John Surgery. With one year of control left, that puts some uncertainty in his Yankee future. As for Andujar, we don’t know if the team will stick him on third long-term. Heck, they are doing due diligence on Manny Machado, who could play shortstop or third. Depends on what happens, I think there’s a slight chance that the Yankees slide Torres back to short, but ultimately, he probably stays on second base – and will do so for a long time.

We saw both strong and weak sides of Torres’s game in 2018. It feels like a broken record saying this but he’s a young guy who will probably get better with more experience. Improvements are never a guarantee but Torres seems to be one of the surer cases where you can bank on him being in pinstripes for years to come.

The Yankees will not have back-to-back AL Rookies of the Year. Earlier tonight, MLB and the BBWAA announced Angels slugger-slash-pitcher Shohei Ohtani has been named the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year. Ohtani received 25 of 30 first place votes. Miguel Andujar came in second and received the other five first place votes. Gleyber Torres finished third. Here are the full voting results.

Although Torres was the better all-around player this past season, Andujar was widely regarded as the biggest challenger Ohtani, who was simply incredible. The guy hit .285/.361/.564 (152 wRC+) with 22 homers and threw 51.2 innings with a 3.31 ERA (3.57 FIP) and 29.9% strikeouts. A deserving Rookie of the Year through and through. I would’ve voted for him.

Andujar and Gleyber both started the season in Triple-A and ended the season as important players for the Yankees. Andujar hit .297/.328/.527 (128 wRC+) with 27 homers and tied Fred Lynn’s AL rookie record with 47 doubles. He was probably the team’s most consistent hitter. Torres hit .271/.340/.480 (120 wRC+) with 24 homers. If you’re interested, here are the AL rookie WAR leaderboards:

Even though Andujar (or Torres) didn’t win, the Yankees did have two of the top three finishers in the Rookie of the Year voting, and that’s pretty darn cool. This is also the third straight year they’ve had a top two finisher in the voting. They’d never done that before. Gary Sanchez was the runner-up in 2016 and Aaron Judge of course won the award unanimously in 2017.

The last team with two top three finishers in the Rookie of the Year voting was the Dodgers with Corey Seager and Kenta Maeda in 2016. The last AL team to do it was the 2013 Rays with Wil Myers and Chris Archer. This is the first time since 1949 (Jerry Coleman third), 1950 (Whitey Ford second), and 1951 (Gil McDougald won) that the Yankees had a top three Rookie of the Year finisher in three straight years.

Furthermore, the Yankees have now had multiple players receive Rookie of the Year votes in one season for the third time in the last five years. Andujar and Torres did it this year, Judge and Jordan Montgomery did it last year, and Dellin Betances and Masahiro Tanaka did it in 2014. Hopefully Justus Sheffield and someone else (Jonathan Loaisiga? Mike King?) can do it again in 2019.

The Yankees do not have any finalists for the other major awards. Some of their guys will get votes, for sure, but they won’t finish in the top three. Managers of the Year will be announced tomorrow with the Cy Youngs and MVPs coming Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Earlier tonight MLB and the BBWAA announced finalists for 2018’s major awards. That is the Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young, and Most Valuable Player. The league has been announcing three finalists for each award in each league for a few years now. They’re trying to drum up interest.

As expected, both Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres are among the AL Rookie of the Year finalists. They’re up against Angels righty-slash-slugger Shohei Ohtani. Here are all the award finalists. The Yankees did not have any other finalists, which isn’t surprising. Having two Rookie of the Year finalists is pretty cool though.

Andujar and Gleyber both started the season in Triple-A before quickly taking over as cornerstone infielders. Andujar hit .297/.328/.527 (128 wRC+) with 27 homers and an AL rookie record 47 doubles. Torres hit .271/.340/.480 (120 wRC+) with 24 homers. Here are the AL rookie WAR leaderboards:

I am pretty sure Ohtani is going to win Rookie of the Year, folks. The guy hit .285/.361/.564 (152 wRC+) with 22 homers and threw 51.2 innings with a 3.31 ERA (3.57 FIP) and 29.9% strikeouts. That is straight up bonkers. And Ohtani did that while adjusting to a new league and a new country. He was incredible. I’d vote for him. Sorry, but it’s true.

The last team with the first and second place finishers in the Rookie of the Year voting was the 2011 Braves with Craig Kimbrel and Freddie Freeman. The last AL team to do it was the 1984 Mariners with Alvin Davis and Mark Langston. The Yankees are guaranteed to have a top two finisher in the Rookie of the Year voting for the third straight season. Gary Sanchez was the runner-up in 2016 and Aaron Judge won the award last year.

As for the other awards, it’s no surprise the Yankees did not have any finalists. Judge’s wrist injury took him out of the MVP race and Luis Severino’s second half fade took him out of the Cy Young race. Aaron Boone never had much of a chance in the Manager of the Year voting. Not with some of the other things that happened around the league.

Next week is awards week. Manager of the Year will be announced on Monday, Rookie of the Year on Tuesday, Cy Young on Wednesday, and MVP on Thursday. They’ll all be revealed during a live MLB Network broadcast at 6pm ET.

While Greg Bird’s year was essentially lost and Neil Walker’s was a roller coaster, things went just about as well as they could have for the Yankees’ youngest players, Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar. Both turned in stellar debut seasons and are likely to finish in the top 3 of AL Rookie of the Year voting, with each having a case to win the award outright. But as always in baseball, there’s room to grow for both players.

At the plate, both flashed great power. Andujar hit 27 home runs and Torres added 24, just three fewer despite having 122 fewer plate appearances. Both sported ISOs over .200, unsurprisingly, with Torres clocking in at .209 and Andujar at .230. That power wasn’t horribly surprising from Andjuar as he always had flashes of raw power that needed to–and did–turn into game power. From Torres, though, that was unexpected. With Torres’s power also came a relatively high strikeout rate of 25.2%.

That high mark is offset by his power and his walk rate–8.7%–was respectable enough that you could live with those strikeouts. Given that this was a bit of a power outburst for Torres that wasn’t necessarily expected, we may see a drop from that in 2019. If that’s the case, he’ll likely need to cut down on those swings a bit and maybe be a hair more selective at the plate. It might be worth cutting down on outs, even if it means cutting down on power. With Andujar, however, there’s no question that he needs to increase his selectivity and discipline at the plate.

Despite high power and a low strikeout rate–16% exactly–a 4.1% walk rate probably isn’t going to cut it long-term, especially when the league makes adjustments to Andujar as a hitter. He’ll need to adjust to those adjustments, or pitchers will exploit his aggressiveness at the plate, which could lead to an increase in strikeout rate and a drop in productivity. Miggy has power to spare and cutting down for the sake of fewer outs will help both him and the team.

The obvious place for both players to improve is in the field. FanGraphs rated their defense poorly, with Andujar clocking in at a 2005 Yankees-esque -15.5. Torres was “better” with a -7.2. Baseball Reference hit Miggy with a -2.2 dWAR, too, though they liked Torres’ defense at 0.5 dWAR. There’s no question that Andujar’s defense needs to get better or the Yankees will be forced to move him, whether to another position or to another team for a starting pitcher. I prefer the former. And even with that spread in Torres’ defense, he still could stand to get better. That proposition will be in the air as the Yankees adjust to Didi Gregorius’s impending absence. Will Torres get a chance to repeat at second or will they slide him back over to short? Given that they traded for Adeiny Hechavarria and had him play short when Didi was out at the end of the year, I imagine it’s likely that Torres stays at second. That’s probably good for his defensive outlook as he can continue becoming comfortable with that position at the highest level.

Both Torres and Andujar had spectacular years in 2018. Were they to repeat them for the rest of their careers, they’d be among the best players in the league each year. However, there is still room for growth on both sides of the ball. It’s tempting to dream on what each could become with just a little improvement.

With all due respect to Miguel Andujar, who’s been my dude since he was in Single-A ball, Gleyber Torres was the best rookie on the 2018 Yankees. Gleyber has Andujar beat in OBP (.340 vs. .328) and he hit three fewer homers and drew 17 more walks in 122 fewer plate appearances. The Baseball Reference version of WAR favors Torres over Andujar (+2.9 vs. +2.2) despite the playing disparity.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who’s better. Torres and Andujar are both Yankees and they’re both awesome. The team gets to move forward with both players and that’s pretty cool. I just think Gleyber showed a more refined all-around game and was the more productive player this year (on a rate basis) and will be the more productive player going forward. Andujar will be great too. Love his bat. I think Torres will be better.

There is, however, one very glaring flaw in Gleyber’s game, and it’s not the careless errors (though those stink). It’s his baserunning. My man was terrible on the bases this year. Both the eye test and the numbers say so. An example of Torres’ baserunning exploits:

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Forget about that hideous slide for a moment. The problem is the decision. The Yankees were down two runs in the seventh inning and Torres doubled in a run to get his team to within one. Rather than stop at second, where he would’ve represented the tying run with no outs, Gleyber belatedly tried to take third on the throw home and ran the Yankees out of a bigger inning. It was bad. Very bad.

Torres went 6-for-8 (75%) stealing bases this season, which is nice, but there is so much more to baserunning than that. He took the extra base on a base hit (first-to-third on a single, etc.) only 21% of the time. 21%! The league average was 41% this season. Three-hundred-and-fifty-six players batted at least 200 times this season. Here is a portion of the extra base taken leaderboard:

Dude. It’s Gleyber and a bunch of catchers. It could be sample size noise — Torres only had 29 opportunities to take the extra base this year — but these numbers are a measure of what actually happened on the field, and what happened on the field was real bad when it comes to Torres running the bases. Doesn’t mean he’ll be bad on the bases going forward! But he was this season, for sure.

Statcast clocked Torres with a sprint speed of 27.1 feet-per-second this season, which is league average overall but below average among middle infielders. Baseball Prospectus breaks down baserunning into different components and the sample sizes are so small that I think the numbers are insignificant, but here’s Gleyber, if you’re interested:

Advance on Grounders: -0.59 runs on 24 opportunities

Advance on Fly Balls: +0.69 runs on 39 opportunities

Advance on Hits: -0.13 runs on 27 opportunities

Other Baserunning: +0.32 runs in 15 opportunities

While the sprint speed isn’t great, the biggest issue to me wasn’t Gleyber’s speed, it was his decision-making and instincts on the bases. There were a few instances in which he tried to take the extra base when he shouldn’t have and there were time he didn’t take the extra base when he could’ve. Torres ran into eight outs on the bases. Giancarlo Stanton led the Yankees in outs on the bases. He had nine and reached base 78 more times than Gleyber. Yeah.

Also, Torres is the anti-Javy Baez when it comes to slides. Baez is an incredible slider and tag-avoider. He’s made slides exciting. Torres has made slides cringe-worthy. We’ve seen Torres make some ugly slides. That’s kind of a big deal because Gleyber blew out his elbow on a slide and needed Tommy John surgery. Here’s the Tommy John slide. Here’s a slide from the final series of the regular season:

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That’s the same slide! Lordy. I get that Torres had to go around the catcher both times, and I get that you don’t want to take away a player’s aggressiveness, but damn dude. Protect that elbow and find a less dangerous way to slide! Gleyber also had some popup slides go wrong throughout the season. As good as Torres is and as talented as he is, baserunning is a clear area of weakness in his game. There’s a lot of room for improvement.

The good news? Baserunning is a relatively small part of the game. Even the best baserunners only add something like +10 runs on the bases over the course of the season. Don’t get me wrong, baserunning can make a big difference in an individual game. That extra 90 feet could have a huge impact. Overall though, if you’re going to be bad at something, being bad at baserunning is preferable to being bad at hitting or defense.

Torres is still a very young player. He turns only 22 in December. Young players, especially very talented ones like Gleyber, tend to get better with experience and I’m hopeful Torres will improve his baserunning ability over time. This past season he was a detriment on the bases. He didn’t take the extra base often and wasn’t particularly good at advancing on other plays. This is one area Gleyber can focus on to take his game to the next level.

Although the 2018 season had a (very) disappointing ending, it is exciting to look at the Yankees and know they are loaded with young talent for the future. Aaron Judge is a superstar through and through. He’s a top ten player in baseball. Then there’s Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres, and Miguel Andujar. Most teams hope to have two guys like that on their roster. The Yankees have all of them.

And yet, going into the 2018-19 offseason, the Yankees are facing some very real questions all around the infield. As recently as June or July it looked like the Yankees were set long-term around the horn, with a young and productive player at all four infield positions. Now, in October, that isn’t really the case. That isn’t to say the Yankees are in bad shape on the infield, because they’re not, but things are a little up in the air. Let’s take a trip through the infield.

First Base

Since Opening Day 2016 the Yankees have received a .234/.314/.403 (91 wRC+) batting line and +1.9 WAR from their first basemen. Among the 30 teams they rank 26th in AVG, 23rd in OBP, 29th in SLG, 29th in wRC+, and 27th in WAR. Gross. Even with the first base cast of characters combining for 34 home runs (!) in 2018, first base has been wasteland since Mark Teixeira’s last good season in 2015.

Right now, it is fair to wonder whether Luke Voit is legit, whether Greg Bird is salvageable, and whether Miguel Andujar is going to wind up at first base. The Yankees love Bird and I’m certain that if you gave Brian Cashman & Co. a truth serum, they’d say they want Bird to grab the job and run with it next year. I would like that too. Bird has power and patience, at least when healthy, and the Yankees could use another left-handed bat.

“We’ll see how the offseason unfolds, but right now, he grabbed that job, no question about that,” Aaron Boone said of Voit at his end-of-season press conference. “I’m sure there will continue to be competition on all kinds of levels. The one thing with Greg that I never lost is we’ve seen him be an impact player at times in his career … This year, in a lot of ways, was a little bit of a lost season for him.”

Honestly, I feel like nothing that happens with first base this offseason would surprise me. Stick with Voit? I could buy it. At the very least, he has to be given every opportunity to win a roster spot in Spring Training, right? Right. Stick with Bird? I could see that too. Trade for Paul Goldschmidt? Trade for someone else? I could totally see it. Sign Bryce Harper and put him at first? Eh, that’s a stretch. Point is, first base remains unsettled, even after Voit’s late-season showing.

“In some ways, (Bird) never got all the way back physically to, I think, where he’ll be next year,” added Boone. “I think there’s a realistic chance he comes into Spring Training next year, physically in a really good place with a chance of a normal offseason where he gets his body where he wants it. Hopefully the results from that will follow. He’ll have his opportunities. We’ve never lost sight of the fact that when he’s right, can really hit.”

Second Base & Shortstop

Gleyber. (Getty)

These two positions are tied together because Torres is going to play one of them next year. We just don’t know which one. Gleyber’s a stud, man. A 21-year-old kid hitting .271/.340/.480 (120 wRC+) with 24 home runs as a middle infielder thrown into a pennant race as a rookie is awfully impressive. Torres is a stud and I think we’re no more than two years away from him emerging as the Yankees’ best player. Not because Judge will collapse or anything. Just because Torres is that damn good.

The problem here is Didi Gregorius. He had Tommy John surgery yesterday. He’s expected to return sometime next summer but no one really knows when. Could be as early as May or June, or as late as August or September. The Yankees have to proceed as if they won’t have Gregorius next year. Although Tommy John surgery is fairly routine, it is a major surgery, and there could be setbacks or a slower than expected recovery. It happens and the Yankees have to be prepared for it.

Gleyber is a natural shortstop — I thought he looked way smoother at short this season than second base — and his flexibility allows the Yankees to replace Gregorius with either a shortstop or second baseman. I’d prefer adding another shortstop and leaving Torres at second, but, if the market cranks out better options at second base, then Gleyber moves over. The only question then is who is the backup shortstop? You’d have to dedicate a bench spot — only of three bench spots since the eight-man bullpen seems to be here to stay — to a shortstop capable infielder.

We know this much about second base and shortstop: One of these two positions is set. Torres will play one. Cashman said they’ll scour the offseason market for a player at the other position “whether it’s an everyday player or an insurance policy.” In a weird way, Torres is the most “sure thing” among Yankees infielders at the moment, and we don’t even know whether he’s playing second or short next year. We just know he’ll be there. Hmmm.

Third Base

By OPS+, Andujar just had one of the three best seasons by a rookie third baseman in the last 30 years. Kris Bryant (135 OPS+) is kinda out there in his own little world, but Andujar (126 OPS+) is right there with Evan Longoria (127 OPS+). Those are the only three rookie third basemen to best a 125 OPS+ since Kevin Seitzer back in 1987. Andujar had an incredible rookie season.

By WAR, Andujar had only the 16th best season by a rookie third basemen over the last 30 years. His +2.2 WAR puts him alongside guys like Gordon Beckham (+2.1 WAR), Akinora Iwamura (+2.2 WAR), and Garrett Atkins (+2.3 WAR). That’s how much value Andujar gave back with his glove. He had one of the best offensive seasons by a rookie third basemen in three decades and was still run of the mill in terms of overall value.

Miggy Mantle. (Mike Stobe/Getty)

The Yankees told use exactly what they think about Andujar’s defense. They subbed him out in the sixth inning (!) for defense in the postseason. When it mattered most, the Yankees didn’t trust Andujar in the field, and I don’t really blame them. Range is a clear issue, and while Andujar has a strong arm, it plays down because his transfer is slow and his sidearm sling can cause the ball to sail wide of first.

“He made big strides this season. He has the athleticism, he has the hands and the arm strength. Preparation for the pitch and footwork are gonna determine if he becomes that frontline defender at third base. I do believe it is in there,” Boone said. “This winter is important for him as far as that goes. When I got here, there were all kinds of questions. He earned his at-bats with the way he swung the bat, but also by improving as much as he did defensively. Now it’s on all of us (to help him get better).”

For what it’s worth, earlier this week Cashman said during a radio interview that he expects Andujar to be the team’s third baseman next season. Of course he’s going to say that, right? The Yankees could be planning — and already enacting — a position change and they would still say they want Andujar at third base because it allows them to maintain leverage during trade and free agent talks.

I am weirdly ambivalent about Andujar’s defensive home next season. If the Yankees decide to keep him at third base for another season and let him work at it, I’m cool with it. And if the Yankees decide to move him to first base or left field (or DH), I’d be cool with that too. Ryan Braun had a great rookie year overall but was a defensive disaster, so he was moved to left field the next season. Could happen with Andujar!

Maybe this is a fluid situation. The Yankees might be planning to put Andujar at third base next season, but, if a better option comes along (trade for Nolan Arenado?), they’ll move him. Otherwise they’ll stick with it at least until Gregorius returns, then they can reevaluate their infield situation and figure out the best alignment. It could be that whoever replaces Didi plays well enough to stay in the lineup everyday, pushing Andujar somewhere else. We’ll see.

* * *

The good news is the Yankees are not devoid of infield talent. There are worse things in baseball than having Miguel Andujar as your starting third baseman, you know? Torres is a stud. Voit raked this year — maybe he is the Yankees’ Nelson Cruz or Jesus Aguilar? that late bloomer who finds it in his late 20s? — and Bird could still maybe be something. They have to replace Gregorius at least temporarily, for sure. A Didi replacement is a “must have” this winter.

At the same time, Voit may be more Shane Spencer than Cruz or Aguilar, and play his way to Triple-A. Andujar could struggle defensively again. I don’t see how you could count on Bird for anything. The Yankees don’t necessarily have an infield problem. They just have some things to sort out. Is Andujar the long-term answer at third? Is it time to bring in a veteran first baseman to stop the post-Teixeira revolving door? Who steps in for Gregorius? Those are all questions the Yanks will answer this winter.

The Yankees dropped Kyle Higashioka and Tyler Wade from their Wild Card Game roster and added Sabathia and Tarpley. They’re carrying four starters, eight relievers, and a four-man bench. Normally, eight relievers in a postseason series is overkill, especially since they’re not going to play more than two days in a row. Yanks vs. Sox games tend to get wild though. The extra reliever could come in handy.

The five-man bench: Gardner, Hechavarria, Romine, and Walker. It’s worth noting Gardner (left field), Hechavarria (third base), and Walker (first base) all came in for defense in the late innings of the Wild Card Game. I wonder if that will continue to be the case going forward. I guess it depends on the score. The Yankees might hold Gardner back for a pinch-running situation in a close game. We’ll see.

Middle relief has been a season-long problem for the Red Sox and they’re going to try to patch that up with Rodriguez this postseason. Also, Eovaldi was told to prepare to pitch in relief in Game One. Wright is a starter by trade as well. Red Sox manager Alex Cora was the Astros bench coach last year, when they expertly used starters like Lance McCullers, Brad Peacock, and Charlie Morton in relief in the postseason. I suspect he’ll look to do the same with the Red Sox this year.

ALDS Game One begins tonight at 7:30pm ET. As expected, the Yankees and Red Sox games drew the primetime slots. All five ALDS games will begin somewhere between 7:30pm ET and 8:10pm ET. The entire series will be broadcast on TBS.